Recent Discussions
Reshaping enterprise go-to-market with Microsoft Marketplace and ecosystem partnerships
As the pace of enterprise transformation accelerates, we’re seeing a fundamental shift in how organizations go to market—and it’s being powered by ecosystems, not silos. Partner1 recently hosted two industry events where we explored how Microsoft Marketplace is becoming a central engine for this change, helping partners unlock new routes to growth while making it easier for customers to discover, buy, and deploy innovative solutions. From AI-driven offerings to multiparty private offers and deeper channel integrations, Marketplace is redefining how partnerships come together to deliver end-to-end value. It’s not just about listing solutions—it’s about creating scalable, repeatable growth through a connected ecosystem that meets customers where and how they want to buy. If you’re thinking about how to evolve your go-to-market strategy, scale with partners, or tap into new revenue opportunities, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss. Read the full article to see how Marketplace and ecosystem partnerships are reshaping enterprise go-to-market—and what it means for your business. How Microsoft Marketplace and ecosystem partnerships are reshaping enterprise go-to-market | Microsoft Community HubWhy to include Azure in your multi-cloud strategy
For software companies building on AWS, adding Azure isn’t just a technical decision—it’s a growth strategy. In this Marketplace blog, learn how replicating your solution to Azure can unlock access to Microsoft’s global seller network, enterprise customers, and commercial marketplace incentives that can reduce procurement friction and accelerate deal velocity. The article breaks down the business case, the role of Marketplace and co-sell, and the financial incentives available to partners—plus practical guidance on when and how to get started. Read the full article to understand why expanding to Azure is increasingly a go-to-market decision, not just an infrastructure one. Replicating solutions to Azure: The business case, the incentives, and how to get there fast | Microsoft Community Hub Learn more and join the April 2nd webinar for live Q&A Why Azure belongs in your multicloud strategy - Microsoft Marketplace CommunitySeamless private offers are critical to closing negotiated deals faster in Microsoft Marketplace
The Seamless Marketplace private offers: creation to customer use | Microsoft Community Hub article walks through the end‑to‑end private offer journey, from creation in Partner Center to customer purchase and solution activation. Learn how Marketplace private offers support flexible selling motions, reduce friction for buyers, and help partners deliver a more streamlined purchasing experience. If you’re looking to strengthen your Marketplace transactions and improve deal execution, this is a must‑read. To learn more and have questions answered join the live webinar on April 15, Seamless private offers: From creation to purchase and activation - Microsoft Marketplace Community, where we will share an end-to-end walkthrough of private offer execution with a live demo and Q&A.
Unified for Partners (UfP)
Hello! A few months ago at Microsoft Ignite, Dan Rippey shared an update on The Future of Partner Support - Customer + Partner + Microsoft. Dan brought 'Unified for Partners' center stage and mentioned that Microsoft is going into listening mode and taking partner feedback. It's easy to share feedback with Microsoft by visiting booths at Ignite. What are some ways partners can share feedback with Dan and others at Microsoft year round? For reference, we have a signed NDA with Microsoft if that helps! My first thought are the two community calls that were running for most of 2025. They were the CSP Technical Training Series and Microsoft Partner Community Q&A Call. However, I don't see any upcoming events scheduled... Thanks! -jonMAPICPP (CSP) community engagement
Hello all, What's up with the CSP Technical Training and Microsoft Partner Community Q&A Call's? Both calls have been cancelled since January. I believe that I read something about Microsoft restructuring the community engagements but I can't find where I read it, or any updates on what is happening. Are the calls coming back? Are they being replaced by another type of community call? Thanks! -jon
How are Dynamics 365 partners handling complex legacy-to-cloud transitions today?
Hi all, I’m interested in understanding how partners are currently approaching complex ERP modernization scenarios, especially when working with long-standing legacy systems and heavily customized environments. From a partner delivery and strategy perspective: Are you seeing more clients choosing full reimplementation vs phased migration? How are you handling deeply customized legacy environments during transition to D365 Finance & SCM? What’s the biggest challenge today, technical complexity, client mindset, or cost justification? Are clients more open to cloud now, or still preferring hybrid/extended legacy setups? How are you positioning value when clients feel their current system is “good enough”? Would be great to hear real partner experiences across industries.
Microsoft Training Services Partner Designation – Courseware & Completion Tracking Guidance Needed
Hi everyone, I am are currently exploring the process of achieving the Microsoft Training Services designation and would appreciate guidance from those who have already gone through this journey. Based on my understanding, courseware completions and related requirements appear to be key steps in achieving this designation. I would like to confirm if this is accurate and get clarity on the most efficient path forward. Specifically, I am looking for insights on the following: Courseware Requirements 1. Which official courses are required, and how are they typically delivered? Access to Training Materials 2. Is there a specific portal or program through which Microsoft-approved courseware can be obtained? Tracking Completions 3. How are course completions tracked and reflected within the partner account? Post-Training Process 4. What is the process for issuing achievement codes and conducting official post-training surveys (such as Metrics That Matter)? Any guidance, shared experiences, or recommended best practices would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!Adding Azure into your multicloud strategy
Building a multicloud strategy? Learn why Azure plays a critical role in accelerating Marketplace success. Join WeTransact at the April 2nd Microsoft Marketplace webinar to explore how aligning Azure with your multicloud approach can help you increase deal size, unlock co-sell opportunities, and move faster using Microsoft tools, funding, and incentives. You’ll gain practical guidance on replication, modernization, and next steps to drive long-term Marketplace momentum. Learn more and attend: Why Azure belongs in your multicloud strategy - Microsoft Marketplace CommunitySecuring AI agents in the agentic era
As AI agents take on more autonomous roles across enterprise applications, security must evolve just as quickly. In this article, explore a practical security playbook for the agentic era—covering key risks, governance considerations, and foundational principles for deploying and scaling AI agents responsibly. You’ll also learn why these security considerations matter for solutions built, published, and transacted through Microsoft Marketplace, where trust, compliance, and enterprise readiness are essential. Read the full article to understand what secure AI agent adoption means for today’s enterprises—and Marketplace publishers. Securing AI agents: The enterprise security playbook for the agentic era | Microsoft Community HubThis Week on the Fabric Engineering Connection
After a two‑week pause for FABCON & SQLCON - The Microsoft Fabric & SQL Community Conferences, we’re excited to welcome partners back for our first Fabric Engineering Connection call since the conference. Welcome back—and what a great way to restart the conversation! 🙌 This week’s sessions bring partners closer to the people building Microsoft Fabric, with timely insights and takeaways straight from FabCon. 🎙 What’s on the agenda: Fabric AI‑Powered Automation for Pro‑Developers (Americas & EMEA) presented by Evelina Alroy-Brin and Hasan Abo-Shally Recap of Data Warehouse announcements from FabCon presented by Rakesh Krishnan and Tino Tereshko 🇺🇦 🌍 Session times: Americas & EMEA: Wednesday, March 25 | 8–9 AM PT APAC: Thursday, March 26 | 1–2 AM UTC / Wednesday, March 25 | 5–6 PM PT These calls are a great opportunity to reconnect after FabCon, hear directly from engineering, and dig deeper into what’s new—and what’s next—for Microsoft Fabric. 👉 Participation is open to members of the Fabric Partner Community. Join here: https://aka.ms/JoinFabricPartnerCommunityBusiness account vetting
Hello, My business account was already fully vetted and suddenly it went again to "Non-compliant". I've opened a support ticket a month ago (#2602260040002250) but so far I only got generic "we are looking into it" replies. This is now severely impacting my business because I can't publish my product on the Microsoft Store, which means I'm actively losing revenue. Can someone please look into it and tell me at least what the status is and a rough timeline for the solution? If no solution can be found any time soon, I'll have to move away from the Microsoft Store and find other means of distribution. Thank you and kind regards, Martin
Moving from Private Plans to Private Offers — Should We Make the Switch?
Hi Azure Marketplace community, We, at https://marketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/product/saturaminc.qualdo_drx are currently using private plans to handle custom pricing for specific customers, and we're evaluating whether it makes sense to transition to private offers. Would love to hear from others who've made this move — or who've deliberately stayed on private plans. Here's where we're at: private plans have served us well for restricting visibility and offering tiered pricing to select tenants, but as our deal complexity has grown (more enterprise customers, negotiated terms, channel partners), we're starting to feel some of the limitations. A few things pushing us toward private offers: Custom pricing flexibility — Private offers let us set percentage discounts or absolute prices per customer without creating a new plan for every deal. As our customer base grows, managing individual plans is getting unwieldy. Multi-party / channel support — We work with some resellers and CSPs. Private offers seem to support that flow much better with multi-party private offers (MPPO). Are there scenarios where private plans are still the better choice over private offers? How are you handling the coexistence of both during a transition period? Any impact on reporting, billing, or reconciliation we should be aware of? We want to make sure we're not solving one problem and creating another. Appreciate any real-world experiences!. Thanks in Advance, Kavitha Srinivasan
New Partner Signup for Company Stuck in catch 22 loop
I want to start by saying that I've had the displeasure for more than a decade as a developer publishing apps on the fruit company and lil green robot company's platforms without anywhere as close to the amount of user confusion and dead ends as here on Microsoft. I started my user journey to sign up for a company account at https://storedeveloper.microsoft.com/en-US/onboarding After a few steps I was delightfully greeted with this, despite being obviously logged into the account to even access these forms: I later found out that the account maybe needs to be re-verified since the platform might not share verification state with the windows live account. After verifying my email again, I fill out all my company info with DUNS number and opt to import all info. Therefore negating any risk of mismatch between whats in DUNS and what's entered. I'm then shown this. So I'm honestly incredibly confused here. If we believe the yellow warning box, then there is nothing to do and the application is closed. But then the red text says pending partner action, that I have things to do. But if I go to the legal info page, I see that I have actions to do. What those are I have no idea Ok so at this point I obviously start searching for support routes. We have two avenues that I've seen mentioned over and over in: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/discussions Option A How to appeal a rejected partner profile in the verification process | Microsoft Community Hub Option Bhttps://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/support?stage=1 According to option A, an employment verification failure is when I can't confirm that the email domain is owned by the company. After following links, I'm led to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/enroll/verification-responses#check-your-verification-status According to this document, I'm to click the "Resolve" button to begin dragging documents in. Except in reality, the version of the site Im seeing has a get support button which takes me to : https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/support/report-problems-with-partner-center Im now shown two more options to resolve things myself. Option #1: use the ai assistant. But the Ai Assistant flow requires a workspace which I don't have. I presume because I don't have a valid account. Therein creating a catch22 Option#2: Use traditional support: Except the ? button is not there in my portal: What is going on here? What am I supposed to be doing to resolve this? What a strenuous career it is that I’ve chosen! I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.
Unable to create support tickets Partner Launch Benefits purchase failing but billing profile valid
Hello, I am currently blocked in Partner Center and unable to proceed due to multiple issues: Support tickets cannot be created Whenever I try to create a support request, I receive an error asking me to retry in 10 minutes. This issue persists across multiple attempts and effectively blocks any access to official support. Partner Launch Benefits purchase fails at checkout When attempting to purchase Partner Launch Benefits, I receive the following error: "Kindly change the payment type to wire transfer and retry. In case the problem persists, please wait for 24 hours before trying again." Reference number: 715 123160 (Transaction ID available if needed) Billing profile status Billing profile is active (green) Account is eligible to purchase No visible validation issues Environment details: Location: Belgium Partner Center language: en-US Issue reproduced across browsers and sessions Impact: I am completely blocked: Cannot contact support Cannot complete required purchase Cannot progress in the Partner program Request: Could a Microsoft representative: Investigate the billing/payment issue Enable support ticket creation for this account Advise on how to unblock the purchase flow I can provide full reference and transaction details privately if required. Thank you in advance.Renewals process - issues
Hi Is it only me? I have tried to let Microsoft be aware of this for the last 7 years now.... Upon renewal of the partnership, the partner temporarily loses its Solution Partner status! A status always used by customers in tenders and RFPs (the responding partner must hold x,x and x Solution Partner) How the renewal process still affects partners +2 weeks after renewal: We get information on how to pay on the anniversary date - for us Saturday March 7 (payment term = 1 month) One can´t pay in advance before this date! With the information provided we initiate the payment Monday March 9, and get the verification proof from the bank on March 10. March 10 we then provide the POE in Partner Center Already at the anniversary day (the 9th), the "Customer Letter" we can create in Partner Center AND our Business Profile has the Solution Partner "taken away" for us, and we "don´t have the programs" that we need to provide to clients. The business profile in Partner Locator is crucial - we link it to clients and prospects! Microsoft then takes until Friday March 13 to verify the payment and "enroll" us again So we have not had the programs for a week, and partner CAN`T hold the programs in a rolling 12M? There´s always a glitch in the timeframe - much more problematic then Microsoft Support in India "understands". I have pinpointed this every year for the last 7 years - nothing happens And - our business profile is STILL empty! +2 weeks after the renewal window started and we did the payment. This has happened every year now - no change! Support ticket 2603180040005878!
Transitioning from Direct Bill to Indirect Reseller
I am sharing our experience regarding transition from DB to IR started 4 months ago to understand the better approach to manage our partner centers in the future. We started transitioning from Direct Bill to Indirect Reseller in November 2025. We currently have: one PGA with two different associated CSP PLAs: Direct Bill PLA and Indirect Reseller PLA. We operate with two different Partner Centers: "first" PC used for the PGA and the Direct Bill PLA "second" used for the Indirect Reseller PLA At the moment, everything is working correctly, as we are actively transferring customers from the Direct Bill model to the Indirect Reseller model, Incentives for the Indirect Reseller (PLA IR) are being received correctly, designations are managed under the PGA tenant, ecc. Regarding TTM, we exceed the 1M‑dollar requirement, but only at the PGA level, as it currently includes both DB and IR revenue. Do you know whether Microsoft requires the 1M‑dollar threshold to be met at the PGA level by combining DB and IR revenue, or if only DB revenue counts for maintaining Direct Bill status? Our other question concerns the end of the customers migration, considering that the Direct Bill PLA will eventually become restricted or revoked. Whether it is recommended to continue using two separate Partner Centers, first for Membership, Incentives, Designations, Earnings, and overall partner management and the second exclusively for CSP Tier-2 customer management. Or whether you suggest alternative or better scenarios for managing the Partner Center structure once the transition is fully completed. Tks for feedback and information. FabrizioDrive partner pipeline and customer outcomes in Microsoft Marketplace with Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft partners are seeing growing demand for AI solutions—but many customers need guidance to move from curiosity to real business impact. In the March 2026 edition of the Copilot Monthly Series, learn how to help small and medium-sized businesses adopt Microsoft Copilot with confidence using a structured, repeatable approach aligned to the Microsoft Customer Engagement Methodology. This article explores how partners can position Copilot as a business solution, lead outcome-focused conversations, and uncover new services opportunities while supporting secure, governed AI adoption. Gain practical insights to build pipeline, accelerate customer value, and scale your Copilot practice across Microsoft Marketplace. Read the full article to learn how to turn AI interest into measurable customer outcomes and long-term growth with Microsoft Copilot. Copilot monetization for SMBs: Build pipeline with confidence by becoming Customer ZeroCustomer office hours: Chart your AI strategy for manufacturing with Microsoft Marketplace
Join the upcoming customer office hours session on March 25 | 9:30 AM PDT to explore how manufacturers can scale AI apps and agents across the factory floor using Microsoft Marketplace. Go beyond AI theory and dive into practical scenarios—from connecting IoT and enterprise systems to enabling analytics, digital twins, and AI agents. Learn how to make informed build, buy, or blend decisions, turn unstructured plant data into actionable insights, and move from pilot to production faster—all while balancing governance and architectural trade‑offs. Bring your questions and engage directly during this interactive session. Learn more on how to attend this webinar: Charting your AI strategy for manufacturing with Marketplace - Microsoft Marketplace Community
URGENT: CSP Direct Bill Termination due to Revenue Discrepancy / Visibility Gap Support Exhausted
We’re currently working through a CSP Direct Bill eligibility review and have run into a discrepancy that we’re hoping other partners may have experience with. Our organization has been operating under CSP Direct Bill and, based on Partner Center indicators and prior guidance from Microsoft, we believed we were meeting the ~$1M TTM revenue requirement. However, we were recently informed by Microsoft that our Direct Bill revenue is being calculated at approximately $892K, below the threshold. The key issue appears to be related to revenue classification: Microsoft indicated that some of our revenue may be attributed to CSP Indirect Reseller (IR), even though we do not actively transact through a distributor. All licensing is billed directly by Microsoft, and we can provide invoices to support this. We’ve also been told that when tenants are associated with both Direct Bill and Indirect models, the 12-month revenue breakdown is not visible in Partner Center. Microsoft has acknowledged that this visibility gap exists and that partners cannot currently see the same classification used internally. Our case is currently under review with Microsoft, but we’re trying to better understand: Has anyone encountered a situation where tenants were classified as indirect without actively selling through a distributor? Are there any reliable ways to identify which customers or subscriptions may be tagged as indirect? Has anyone successfully reconciled or corrected this type of revenue classification issue? Any insights or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated, especially if you’ve navigated this during a Direct Bill eligibility review. Thanks in advance.
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For software development companies building and selling through Microsoft Marketplace, a strong multicloud strategy can accelerate customer acquisition, increase deal size, and unlock new co-sell opp...
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